As premiações e honrarias a cientistas fazem parte da dinâmica de funcionamento da atividade científica desde o século XVII. O sistema de recompensas da ciência reforça essa prática baseada na motivação dos cientistas em busca de reconhecimento. No entanto, a lógica desse sistema a partir da estratificação dos cientistas e suas contribuições faz com que haja uma distribuição desigual dos créditos aos pesquisadores, favorecendo os pesquisadores com maior reconhecimento. Os estudos bibliométricos revelam tendências e normas de atuação desse sistema a cientistas ganhadores de grandes prêmios internacionais como Prêmio Nobel e Medalha Fields. Diante desse arcabouço teórico, cabe analisar de que maneira o sistema de recompensas afeta jovens cientistas no início da carreira e quais as consequências destes para a carreira científica e profissional. O estudo tem como objeto os doutores premiados, em âmbito nacional, com o Prêmio Capes de Tese, outorgado pela agência de fomento Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) que desde 2006, premia anualmente as melhores teses de doutorado em 48 áreas de conhecimento, com bolsas de pós-doutorado em instituições de excelência no país e no exterior. A partir dos resultados foi possível verificar que o tema da tese premiada permanece atual, e que mesmo os contemplados que não utilizaram as bolsas de pós-doutorado se beneficiaram dos efeitos do reconhecimento do prêmio na comunidade científica. / The scientific awards and honors are part of the operating dynamics of scientific activity since the seventeenth century. The reward system of science reinforces this based on the motivation of scientists in search of recognition. However, the logic of this system from the stratification of scientists and their contributions means that there is an unequal distribution of credit for researchers, encouraging researchers with greater recognition. Bibliometric studies reveal trends and models of performance winners of major international awards such as the Nobel Prize and Fields Medal. Given this theoretical framework, we analyze how the reward system affects young scientists in their careers and their consequences for the scientific and professional career. The object of this study is the winning doctors, nationwide, with the Capes Thesis Award, awarded by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) that since 2006, offer annually awards to the best doctoral thesis in 48 areas of knowledge, with post-doctorate scholarships in institutions of excellence in the country and abroad. From the results we observed that the subject of the award-winning thesis remains current, and even contemplated that didn’t use the post-doctorate scholarships were benefited from the effects of the recognition of the award in the scientific community.

As premiações e honrarias a cientistas fazem parte da dinâmica de funcionamento da atividade científica desde o século XVII. O sistema de recompensas da ciência reforça essa prática baseada na motivação dos cientistas em busca de reconhecimento. No entanto, a lógica desse sistema a partir da estratificação dos cientistas e suas contribuições faz com que haja uma distribuição desigual dos créditos aos pesquisadores, favorecendo os pesquisadores com maior reconhecimento. Os estudos bibliométricos revelam tendências e normas de atuação desse sistema a cientistas ganhadores de grandes prêmios internacionais como Prêmio Nobel e Medalha Fields. Diante desse arcabouço teórico, cabe analisar de que maneira o sistema de recompensas afeta jovens cientistas no início da carreira e quais as consequências destes para a carreira científica e profissional. O estudo tem como objeto os doutores premiados, em âmbito nacional, com o Prêmio Capes de Tese, outorgado pela agência de fomento Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) que desde 2006, premia anualmente as melhores teses de doutorado em 48 áreas de conhecimento, com bolsas de pós-doutorado em instituições de excelência no país e no exterior. A partir dos resultados foi possível verificar que o tema da tese premiada permanece atual, e que mesmo os contemplados que não utilizaram as bolsas de pós-doutorado se beneficiaram dos efeitos do reconhecimento do prêmio na comunidade científica. / The scientific awards and honors are part of the operating dynamics of scientific activity since the seventeenth century. The reward system of science reinforces this based on the motivation of scientists in search of recognition. However, the logic of this system from the stratification of scientists and their contributions means that there is an unequal distribution of credit for researchers, encouraging researchers with greater recognition. Bibliometric studies reveal trends and models of performance winners of major international awards such as the Nobel Prize and Fields Medal. Given this theoretical framework, we analyze how the reward system affects young scientists in their careers and their consequences for the scientific and professional career. The object of this study is the winning doctors, nationwide, with the Capes Thesis Award, awarded by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) that since 2006, offer annually awards to the best doctoral thesis in 48 areas of knowledge, with post-doctorate scholarships in institutions of excellence in the country and abroad. From the results we observed that the subject of the award-winning thesis remains current, and even contemplated that didn’t use the post-doctorate scholarships were benefited from the effects of the recognition of the award in the scientific community.

As premiações e honrarias a cientistas fazem parte da dinâmica de funcionamento da atividade científica desde o século XVII. O sistema de recompensas da ciência reforça essa prática baseada na motivação dos cientistas em busca de reconhecimento. No entanto, a lógica desse sistema a partir da estratificação dos cientistas e suas contribuições faz com que haja uma distribuição desigual dos créditos aos pesquisadores, favorecendo os pesquisadores com maior reconhecimento. Os estudos bibliométricos revelam tendências e normas de atuação desse sistema a cientistas ganhadores de grandes prêmios internacionais como Prêmio Nobel e Medalha Fields. Diante desse arcabouço teórico, cabe analisar de que maneira o sistema de recompensas afeta jovens cientistas no início da carreira e quais as consequências destes para a carreira científica e profissional. O estudo tem como objeto os doutores premiados, em âmbito nacional, com o Prêmio Capes de Tese, outorgado pela agência de fomento Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) que desde 2006, premia anualmente as melhores teses de doutorado em 48 áreas de conhecimento, com bolsas de pós-doutorado em instituições de excelência no país e no exterior. A partir dos resultados foi possível verificar que o tema da tese premiada permanece atual, e que mesmo os contemplados que não utilizaram as bolsas de pós-doutorado se beneficiaram dos efeitos do reconhecimento do prêmio na comunidade científica. / The scientific awards and honors are part of the operating dynamics of scientific activity since the seventeenth century. The reward system of science reinforces this based on the motivation of scientists in search of recognition. However, the logic of this system from the stratification of scientists and their contributions means that there is an unequal distribution of credit for researchers, encouraging researchers with greater recognition. Bibliometric studies reveal trends and models of performance winners of major international awards such as the Nobel Prize and Fields Medal. Given this theoretical framework, we analyze how the reward system affects young scientists in their careers and their consequences for the scientific and professional career. The object of this study is the winning doctors, nationwide, with the Capes Thesis Award, awarded by the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) that since 2006, offer annually awards to the best doctoral thesis in 48 areas of knowledge, with post-doctorate scholarships in institutions of excellence in the country and abroad. From the results we observed that the subject of the award-winning thesis remains current, and even contemplated that didn’t use the post-doctorate scholarships were benefited from the effects of the recognition of the award in the scientific community.

Dans la communauté scientifique, le statut d’auteur est associé à la reconnaissance et à la crédibilité auprès des pairs puisque l’autorat constitue un facteur essentiel dans la prise de décisions pour l’embauche et la promotion d’un chercheur, ainsi que dans l’attribution de prix et de financement. Par ailleurs, dans les publications savantes, il est pratique courante de remercier les individus, institutions et organismes subventionnaires qui ont contribué de diverses façons aux travaux de recherche menant à la publication. Bien qu’ils puissent être considérés comme un simple acte de courtoisie, les remerciements peuvent également être perçus comme un marqueur de capital symbolique. Les remerciements permettent de souligner des contributions extrêmement variées, de nature cognitive, technique et sociale, mais qui ne satisfont généralement pas les critères d’autorat. En ce sens, les remerciements permettent de mieux comprendre le rôle des individus et des organisations qui ont contribué à la recherche. Dans ce contexte, notre recherche vise à décrire les fonctions des remerciements dans le système de la reconnaissance scientifique pour mieux comprendre leur valeur, du point de vue du crédit scientifique, ainsi qu’à explorer les facteurs qui peuvent influencer leurs caractéristiques dans le contexte des pratiques d’attribution du crédit scientifique. Notre étude s’intéresse d’abord à la distribution du crédit scientifique parmi l’ensemble des contributeurs d’un projet de recherche, soit les auteurs et les remerciés. L’analyse du nombre de contributeurs par article montre que les importantes différences disciplinaires traditionnellement observées en matière de collaboration sont grandement réduites lorsque les remerciés sont pris en compte. Nos analyses des caractéristiques des individus remerciés montrent que les disparités de genre, maintes fois démontrées en matière d’autorat, sont également présentes dans les remerciements où les femmes sont sous-représentées. De plus, les femmes ont tendance à remercier une proportion plus élevée de femmes que les hommes. En ce qui concerne le statut académique, nos résultats montrent que les individus remerciés qui ont déjà publié ont tendance à occuper une position plus élevée dans la hiérarchie académique que le reste des auteurs. Notre analyse comparative du contenu des remerciements souligne d’importantes tendances disciplinaires en matière de types de contributions remerciées. Nos résultats fournissent la première démonstration empirique à grande échelle des variations qui existent entre les disciplines dans le contenu des remerciements. Finalement, notre analyse qualitative des termes contenus dans les remerciements met en lumière trois fonctions principales des remerciements : la description des contributions, la déclaration des responsabilités, ainsi que l’expression de la voix de l’auteur. / In the scientific community, authorship is associated with recognition and credibility and thus plays a central role in decisions related to the hiring and promotion of a researcher, and in the attribution of prizes and funding. In scholarly publications, it is also common practice to acknowledge individuals, institutions, and funding organizations that contributed in various ways to a research project. Although they can be considered as a simple scholar’s courtesy, acknowledgements can also be perceived as a marker of symbolic capital. Acknowledgements shed light on extremely diverse contributions, of cognitive, technical and social nature, that generally do not meet authorship criteria. As such, acknowledgements allow for a better understanding of the role played by individuals and organizations that contribute to research. In this context, our research aims to describe acknowledgements’ functions within the reward system of science to better understand their value, in terms of scientific credit, and to explore factors that can influence their characteristics in the context of credit attribution practices. Our study addresses scientific credit distribution among all contributors of a research project, authors and acknowledgees. Our analyses of the number of contributors per paper show that the important disciplinary differences in team size, which traditionally characterize collaboration, are greatly reduced when considering acknowledgees as contributors. Our analyses of acknowledgees’ sociodemographic characteristics show that gender disparities, repeatedly demonstrated in terms of authorship, are also present in the acknowledgements, where women are also under-represented. Moreover, women tend to acknowledge a higher proportion of women than men do. Regarding academic status, our results show that acknowledgees who have already published tend to have a higher position in the academic hierarchy than the rest of authors. Our comparative analysis of acknowledgements’ content highlights important disciplinary trends in terms of types of contributions mentioned. Our results constitute the first large-scale empirical demonstration of disciplinary variations in the content of acknowledgements. Finally, our qualitative analysis of acknowledgements’ content emphasises three main functions of acknowledgements: the description of contributions, the responsibility disclaimers, and the expression of the authorial voice.